Imaginational

Imaginational is an adjective formed from imagination, used to denote something pertaining to or arising from the faculty of imagining. It is not widely attested in standard English dictionaries and is generally regarded as a rare or experimental term. In many contexts, writers would instead choose imaginative or imaginal to express related ideas.

Etymology and nuance: the word combines the noun imagination with the adjectival suffix -al. It shares its root with imaginal, a term used in psychology, philosophy, and literary criticism to refer to mental images or imaginative content. Imaginational tends to emphasize the activity or capability of imagining rather than the content itself, though actual usage is scarce and variable.

Usage and examples: when used, imaginational typically appears in literary or theoretical discourse describing processes, spaces, or acts of imagining. Examples might include phrases such as an imaginational landscape or imaginational rhetoric. However, because it remains uncommon, writers often prefer imaginative for broad creativity, or imaginal when signaling imagery or mental phenomena. If imaginational is employed, it is advisable to define the term at its first occurrence to avoid ambiguity.

See also: imaginative, imaginal, imagination. Notes: imaginational is a niche or nonce word rather than a standard lexical item, and its acceptability depends on audience and context.